Inheritance of loss

Sarika Sharma

Everyone tells the tale of those who looted, there is none who tells the tale of those who were lost. For sociologist HS Bhatti, the future lies in the past and as long as we refuse to learn lessons from our losses, tomorrow won't be bright. In his long poem, Vandnama, he traces the beginning of the rift that pitted Sikhs against Hindus, Hindus against Muslims and so on.

Bhatti, who teaches sociology at Punjabi University, is someone who is more comfortable writing research papers. But there are times when literary words flow. The result is this 83-page verse, an account of those times we failed ourselves and became toys in the hands of looters.

The story begins in 1850. The British had annexed Punjab and differences had begin to set in. “The first cases of caste-based segregation were recorded around 1880," says Bhatti. 

The book is a historical and political documentation of the last 200 years of the region. There are references of major political and social happenings, from Kuka movement to fighting wars that were not ours. He writes of how Indians finally saw the dream of independence and how leaders deserted their people when it was time to lead the two new nations through turmoil. How people set out on journeys across the border, carrying enormous burden, counting the dead and picking the threads.

Bhatti says the British retained dominion for a long time and made us fight each other. "Eventually, the Muslim majority went its own separate way, but all didn't end with that. The post-colonial psychology is partitional and painful. The spiritual unity of mankind has been ruptured and faces onslaught of class, culture, caste and religious divide all the time," he says."The education system has developed, the middle class has developed. But that hasn't changed anything for the better. One class outclassed the other when it came to hatred," he says.